Many of us collaborate at times with our business associates, whether for a class, a fair or expo...any sort of team effort. Communication is critical to the success of these events, so how can you best support each other?

First step: role assignment! Be sure that each team member understands his or her role in the project, what tasks they're assigned, the timeline and due dates, and how, to whom, and when they are to report results. Tip: consider not just the tasks for each member, but in what areas they need to be a decision maker, or be informed, or be left out of a conversation.

Second step: shared files! We've all experienced the trauma (ok, maybe not trauma, but certainly stress!) of sharing documents by email. It's so easy to lose track of what changes have been made, and by whom. Instead, use a virtual "file cabinet" like Google Drive or Dropbox to store items every team member will need.

Set up project folders with explicit titles so that anyone on the team can easily find what they're looking for. Within those folders, store anything, and I mean ANYTHING, that a team member might need. You might want a folder for images, one for applications, one for setup or venue - consider the aspects of your particular project that make the most sense to organize the folders.

When changes are made to a file, ensure that it's saved back into the same folder so you don't end up with multiple versions of the same document - something I see often! You may want to have team member save items they have edited as "V1 date, V2 date," so it's easy to tell at a glance what the most recent update is, and yet you will still be able to recover previous versions if something goes wrong. AND, as I said, you won't have ten of the same file saved! Tip: be sure to include the date in the file name.

Whenever I manage a project I like to outline everything up front in a team meeting, so everyone is "on the same page" about timelines, roles, and how communication will be handled. Be sure to have regular meetings with subsets of the team sharing the same roles. Set expectations up front so there are no surprises!